1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of computer networks and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for sustaining a network connection between local and remote applications.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Presently, users purchase dedicated software applications to provide computing resources. However, certain economies of scale should be achievable by making applications available over a network, such as the Internet, so that users need not own their own dedicated copies. Instead, an application could be made centrally available and users would purchase the computing services made available by the application.
One problem with centralizing computer services is what to do with software applications that are running on the centralized system but are not actively being used. Presently, if a user of a dedicated computer system opens an application, for example, a spreadsheet program, and then leaves the computer to take a break, the application on the dedicated computer system simply idles until the user returns. Since the computer system is dedicated to the user, there is little or no loss of system efficiency caused by the running but idle application. However, a centralized computing system built to accommodate multiple idle applications would necessarily include considerably more hardware capacity than would be needed to handle just active applications.
Accordingly, what is desired is a method for handling network connections to applications in a manner that more efficiently utilizes the centralized computing system resources.